Hiei's Justice
by Brago12716
Summary: Hiei is put to work watching the invasion that started the justice league in fear that the invaders would find a way to spirit world, putting him on a path to not only watch the invasion but become a member of the league, now on a search to find a way back to demon world, he'll do anything, even becoming a hero to achieve his goal. no rest of YYH, only JL until after JLU has ended.
1. Secret Origins

Hiei's Justice

Chapter 1

Secret Origins

"Not good, not good, not good," a large blue ogre yelled to himself as he was running through the halls of the office of spirit world, this was one of the worst things that could possibly be happening, sirens were blaring all around him and gates were slamming shut for a lock down. They had gotten word from the living world that various meteors were striking at it, these meteors contained spirit energy foreign to all of them, and so they were now putting a lock down on all spiritual beings, no matter who they were, how powerful, they were ordered to spirit world. Not just the spiritual beings either, they had received word that all demons were ordered back to demon world as well, at least the demons that could get back at least, the others were ordered to lay as low as possible and not draw any attention to themselves, and that meant any attention.

The ogre just now reached his destination, Koenma stood pacing back and forth in his office when the ogre came inside of it in a panic mess, "Ogre," the young spirit prince barked as soon as the mess of an assistant rushed into the room, "where have you been, this is a state of emergency."

The ogre stumbled to stand at attention at the focus of his boss, "sorry sir, my hydrangeas needed to be watered, I forgot to water them before I left home," his boss stared at him with a blank expression before jumping up and smacking the ogre as hard as possible on the head.

"This is no time to be worried about something like hydrangeas you oaf," Koenma shouted at the ogre for doing that right now of all times, "we're facing a large crisis on our hands, we need every available asset we have ready to help defend the other worlds from whatever threat is coming." He began walking past the ogre before kicking him in the shin, hard, it made him fall to the floor in pain while Koenma just went back to his desk and climbed to his seat, "but while we wait, we need information, my screen is on lock down as is the rest of spirit world," he told him plainly.

"Are you really suggesting keeping Yusuke in living world to investigate whatever this is," the Ogre asked him incredulously while stepping back, "but sir, he's our greatest asset for any problem in the future as well as now, we can't use him and put him into that kind of harm's way."

"I know that you oaf," Koenma snapped at the assistant before looking to his desk, "not to mention we just got off having to deal with the Dark Tournament, he's tired at the moment, pulling him back into everything after that is too much to take on right after another. At first I thought about having Kuwabara do it instead, he didn't take as much damage as compared to Yusuke and his own spiritual awareness is better than most psychics right now anyways, however this mission requires stealth and a moral flexibility, not something that he has. Kurama is the hole package, level headed, spiritually aware, expert thief, morally flexible, stealthy, and nothing would be wrong, except he has school and as repeatedly told me that what his mother wants will often take precedence over what it is that spirit world wants."

"Well if you're going off of those people, that means we've exhausted all of our useful assets, right," Ogre asked dumbly while screeching his head, Koenma looked at him as if he was stupid before it dawned on him, "you can't use Hiei sir, he'll run from us the first chance he got."

"I know," the toddler told him with a snap, "but he's the only choice that we have, stealthy, expert thief, moral flexibility, spiritually aware, and able to at least blend into the area in a crowd, problem is he's ill mannered, hates all humans, and has a violent tendency, not good for a spy." Koenma put his palms on his eyes and hung his head, "why did these invaders have to come here now of all times, just a few more months and we could send Kurama during summer vacation, but we need a solution now," honestly he was thinking of banging his head on the table right now.

"Honestly sir, I can't figure out why you never just let him go home and be done with it, he's already found his sister and made sure she's taken care of, he doesn't really need to stay here does he," the blue moron asked out loud to him and an idea finally formed in his head from it.

"Ogre," Koenma snapped at him and said man stood straight up, "you wonderful brilliant moron," he said more happily before pressing a button on his desk, "get me Hiei here now, and be quick about it, the barrier will be up fully in twenty-four hours before this invasion begins." Now all he had to do was to sit back and wait, Botan will fetch Hiei and he could put a plan of his into motion, "Ogre you actually helped us out, so you can have the rest of the lock down off after everything is locked down fully," the blue skinned man jumped for joy at the reward.

It was only after about thirty minutes did they wait and in came a short man standing at four feet and ten inches tall without his hair was a stoic faced black dressed fire demon walking into his office as if he didn't want to be there, and he didn't, "what is it, I was busy," Hiei demanded.

"Busy sleeping I bet," Koenma muttered to himself before he felt the heat in the room begin to rise a little, so he coughed into his hand and spoke, "since you're blunt, I'll be blunt, I have one last mission for you before you get to go home, and it is a stealth and observe operation. All you have to do is go to what is to be a landing sight of a crash we are projecting will hold an invasion, that is why the spirit world is going into lock down right now, to keep them out, we want you to observe and report back, after that I'll personally see you leave back to demon world."

"But sir," Botan spoke from her position just beside of him, "the living world has their own heroes, many who should be more than enough to deal with the likes of whatever invasion is coming our way, remember what happened with that one alien so many years ago, lock down wasn't called then."

"That was completely different, that alien was on the living world's side first, so we had no way to prepare for that situation, nor will the heroes be prepared for what comes, their forces are quite the sizable assault, large numbers will overwhelm them," Koenma told with even certainty.

"So I'm being sent because if I fail then that is also one possible future threat out of the way, right," Hiei stated with dangerously narrowed eyes, at the toddler sitting in his chair and noticeably shaking from the gaze cast his way, "so you need skill and someone disposable."

Koenma still looked at him with a bit of fear as he said, "yes Hiei, in the event that this mission fails and the invaders kill all of living world, you will not receive any help from us, so you will die, but if you succeed then you'll get to go home as soon as it's done, what is your answer?"

Hiei stared at Koenma with a look of contempt, he was being used to bring in information and let them know what is going on when it's over, knowing no information beyond that other than it could possibly be a suicide mission, so in short he was being used, and yet, "fine, where is it?"

"You'll be going to the first landing sight, a city named Metropolis, located in America," Koenma informed and already Hiei hated this assignment, he hated dealing with humans, but he hated dealing with Americans the most, all demons did, why they chose other places to stay while there. "I know, nobody likes that place for the same reason you demons do, but at least Metropolis is no Gotham, now that place would make you scowl in disgust, at least with Metropolis you have clean air and lower crimes to watch until it hits tomorrow night, so go, and do be careful." Hiei didn't say anything as he turned and walked away, the decision to do this was going to be one of the worst he's ever made, he can already feel it in his very being, and with each step it seemed to take him closer than ever before to the biggest migraine of his entire life.

* * *

Next Night

Hiei knew it, nothing but a migraine, all throughout last night and this night he's had to stay away from some red and blue boy-scout that flies through the skies, going from one place or another, Hiei just found a tree in the park and laid down on a branch and waited all day, got some strange looks. Others just looked up and blinked before walking further off without saying a word, it eventually got to the point where some people got ticked off and decided to call an officer, that officer came only to find nothing there, because Hiei went to a different tree on the other side of the park. That was at least an interesting game to play while waiting for the night to come, laying in a tree until someone calls a cop on you for sleeping on a branch, apparently that was illegal for this place, and then when the cop came go to a different tree on the other side of the park, a nice game.

Eventually though it got to be nighttime and so he chose to instead wait on a roof overlooking the park, a good view from the height and not too high so that no detail was missed on the ground, also gave him a clear view of the sky that looked to be quite clear, other than a few clouds. That is when the loud beeping in his ears sounded, a beep in quick succession going on a loud loop, his ears caught it and forced him to take his eyes off the sky to look in the direction it sounded to be coming from, but then he had to hide as the big boy in red and blue flew overhead. He went to the same place that the noise was coming from though, so that meant it was probably a high frequency that he was hearing, his own keen ears must have picked it up along with the boy-scout, apparently one of his many powers was enhanced ears as well.

That is when it happened, in the sky was a large ball of flames coming from space, it was showtime now, it flew at an angle until eventually it passed by the area where the boy in blue had entered and skidded to a halt, destroying the park, and sopping just outside on the street by it. It was still flaming by the time emergency services finally arrived and tried to put it out with water, it was slowly cooling for other people to get a good look at it, it was a large brown rock, a meteor that was smoking and releasing smoke as many other emergency services arrived to the scene. Then came the rumbling, followed by a crack and then finally came a white L shaped appendage that crashed through it with yellow slime hanging off it, it slammed down to the ground almost hitting two officers before the boy in blue saved them, almost getting hit with another appendage. He dodged it in time to avoid it and flew the two officers to the ground before yet another one came from the meteor, this one between the two that had already come out before it used its strength to raise out a deformed red and white head, with a black top foot print on the front of it.

These invaders looked to be organic in nature, so at least it can be killed, but then its 'eye', turned into a singular black dot that then lit up red and shot a laser out destroying a police car with only a single blast, then came the man in blue come in and fly straight for it. It noticed him and shot at him before he could get too close and sent him flying back and bounce of a building roof before falling to the ground making a crater, the thing kept moving while the officers there kept shooting at it before it shot another blast at them again.

Then came a few more shots that destroyed the buildings before a large sound came from what appeared to be a black flying craft in the shape of a bat that also headed for the invading force, it unleashed two rockets at it and the alien let it hit dead on since it knew it wouldn't work. The jet then flew around it forcing it to focus its fire on it with quite a few shots before eventually the man in blue came back and delivered a hard right to the large tripod thing before delivering a couple axe handles that knocked it over and into the bridge it had been moving past. Then blue boy got on top of it and tried to pry open some of the outer shell to get inside the noticeably tougher exterior, only for said tripod to notice what it was doing and blast him off and into a far off building, the tripod rose up from the bridge legs as the flying machine came back in. This time it did an amazing thing, it shot a couple missiles again did as little as it did the last time before getting shot at by the tripod again, only for it to then be joined by another that came out of the same meteor, and then came another one for the party to start, what a mess this was.

That was when something else happened, all of a sudden the boy in blue flew off, but his face didn't scream to be that of a coward's, but the one in the black jet seems to have now gotten some reinforcements from other jets that came in and did the same thing he did. Seeing as how it did just as good as the last times though, you can understand why the tanks also showed up, the tanks that then did just as good as the missiles from jets though had Hiei wondering why they even bothered to show up if they were also going to be useless.

It finally got to the point where Hiei got board of watching the humans get slaughtered for hours on end and decided to do something off the mission book, he raised his spirit energy and with a quick burst decided to find out where exactly those that were defending the world were gone to.

* * *

Later

After searching in the general direction they went off into, Hiei finally spotted them coming out of a government facility, along with a new green friend, also saw the soldiers all transform into white humanoid creatures as well, that was strange, but not the strangest thing he could have seen. They began firing on the three heroes, the one in black and the green one jumped out of the way while the one in red and blue was shot into a jeep with a laser, the one in black threw an explosive from behind another jeep that took some out, one came from behind to shoot them. The green one saw this and phased through the one in black before getting shot himself, the one in black threw a bat shaped throwing projectile at the one who shot him, the one in blue came back and lifted a tank to shield them while they started to slowly head towards the black jet.

The green on paused when the one in black put him in the machine and looked in Hiei's direction, his eyes glowed a pale orange and he heard a voice in his head, 'please help us,' before he felt the connection cut, the green guy was obviously a telepath, and he expected Hiei to help.

The jet fired up and began to take off as the one in blue came in and threw the tank he was holding on the invaders to take them out in a massive explosion, they both took off and left Hiei there to try and play catchup, but he was left with an even bigger problem thanks to the telepath. Now they knew he was there, knew that he had been following them, and the telepath will now tell them that and expect him to help them, being a hero was not part of the agreement and being a hero was not ever a part of his character, he was now and forever a demon, a villain. Yet, if he wished to go home, wished to put an end to his stay here in the living realm, he'd have to do something, these humans and heroes are taking too much time, if spirit world doesn't hear from him soon they'll assume he's dead and close off all access to demon world, to his home.

With that in mind he jumped up just as white triangular ships flew overhead in pursuit of the heroes, they wanted help, he'll help until them help him without them even knowing it, he waited until the ships broke off one group going after the boy in blew while the others went after the black one. When he thought it was enough and the one in black was about to get hit, Hiei acted by summoning the mortal flame and slamming his fist through the ship he was standing on, before speeding for a different one and using his sword to slice it in two and flipping to stab into another one. He took the stab and began cutting until a crescent shape was made, the ship started to spark to explode before he jumped off again and landed on a wing before slicing that flight component off, he jumped just in time to see the black jet get shot and fell with a smoking wing.

It was caught by a green light, following the green light showed it to be from a dark skinned man in a green uniform, and Hiei didn't have time to look on any further because one ship spotted him and fired at him, he dodged by using his flames in mid air to go above it spun to heel drop. This created an explosion that destroyed the ship and made him speed to a mountain side cliff to avoid being hit with a laser from another ship, the laser was blocked by a woman in wings with an electric mace that directed the blast while the one in green came in and sliced it in half. The one in blue spun one around and let go to make it slam into a mountain side, before going off and destroying one by flying into it, the green skinned one used his phasing ability to let the lasers shoot through him and into another one to destroy it, two destroyed each other. Hiei speed forward and used his fire to spin around and tunnel through another one that was coming up behind the green uniformed one before crushing one with his mortal flame covered fist, shooting out flames into a long spring-like form to evaporate one behind him. One blast shot to close to the winged one and forced her to crash into a mountain ledge before a woman in red and blue with silver bracelets came in to block the incoming lasers and direct them back to the firing ship, the ship crashing into them was prevented by the green uniformed one.

At long last the battle was won and they all gathered together where the black jet, a red blur zooming in and held a piece of the black jet, "hey bats, I think you dropped this," he gestured to the wing piece before spotting the woman in red, "whoa, where have you been all my life?"

"Themyscira," the woman said and the one in red had a blank look, "the home of the Amazons, though you probably thought it was merely a legend, I assure you it's as real as the ground on which we stand, I am Diana, princess of the Amazons," she introduced herself to them all.

"Pinch me I must be dreaming," the red one told anyone who would listen, the one in blue elbowed him instead, "ow," which was the appropriate response seeing as how that elbow could have destroyed the speedster then and there, but Hiei chose not to comment on that.

"Themyscira is protected by the Gods, but I could not idly stand by while the rest of the world was in danger, and it was lucky that I showed up when you did," Diana told them as they listened in, though at least Hiei was thankful he wasn't the only odd one out, the others seemed to know each other.

"No, not luck, I telepathically summoned them, even the one that was following you from Metropolis," the green skinned one said before looking to the one that almost didn't help them, the blue one and the black one turned to Hiei and rose an eyebrow, wondering why he just helped.

"Look, I'm usually pretty quick on the uptake, but would someone please tell me what the heck is going on here," the one in red asked everyone and Hiei knew exactly his role in the group, he was another fool like the oaf with the 'manly honor' and spirit sword from the Dark Tournament.

J'onn J'onzz was his name and apparently he came from Mars to warn the human race about the impending alien threat, yet human stupidity got in the way again, "so, J'onn J'onzz, you came from Mars to warn us," Dianna asked as Superman finished repairing the wing to the black jet.

"We first encountered them a thousand of your Earth years ago, it was a golden age, our Martian civilization was at the height of its peace and prosperity, and then… they arrived, where they came from, no one knew but they were determined to make our planet their own. We Martians were peaceful people and the taking of any life was abhorrent to us, but we quickly learned the ways of war, for centuries the battles raged on, every trace of our once great civilization was obliterated, we fought valiantly but the invaders were parasites who fed on our psychic energy. As we grew weaker, they grew stronger, they even absorbed our shape-changing abilities, finally a small group of Martian survivors planned one final desperate attack, inside their underground stronghold we unleashed a powerful nerve gas which paralyzed them. The attack was successful, but the cost was dear, I was the only survivor the last of my kind, I sealed up their citadel to keep them in a constant state of suspended animation, for over 500 years, I stood guard over them, but while I was in a hibernation cycle astronauts unsealed and revived the invaders."

The all listened intensely to J'onn J'onzz's story and after it, the green uniformed one spoke up, "those astronauts never said anything about finding life on Mars because some pencil pusher in Washington probably decided it should be classified information," that was reasonable.

"With all the Martians gone, the invaders had nothing left to feed upon so they turned their sights to Earth, I narrowly escaped and came here to warn of the coming danger, while I was being held against my will the invaders sent advanced agents to disable Earth's defenses," J'onn informed.

"That's why they sabotaged the deep-space monitoring network so we couldn't detect their activities," the man in black spoke up, he occasionally sent a quizzical eye to Hiei, but the fire demon ignored it and focused on the conversation that was happening, and what it all meant.

"Though it may already be too late to stop them," J'onn said as he looked off into the distance where clouds began to form, "the invaders are nocturnal, they want to blot out the sun so they can live in perpetual darkness," he informed them all, though Hiei didn't see anything wrong.

"Friends of yours," the red one told the one in black who glared back, he backed off and went to stand behind Martian, "what's the problem, can't you just whip up another batch of that nerve gas," he asked the Martian, though Hiei had a feeling that it won't be anything as simple as that.

"Unfortunately, no, the gas can only be made from a rare Martian plant, I brought a sample with me, but it was destroyed when I was captured," J'onn informed them sadly, this was getting too troublesome, if Kurama was here he could make a nerve gas similar to the Martian plant.

"Tactically, we'll have multiple objectives so we'll need to split into teams," the green uniformed one said, the one in red wanted the Amazon, but from his own experiences, Hiei knew that wasn't a good idea, but instead he went with the green uniformed man instead, that was one team. Next was the team of the boy in blue and the one with the wings, though why anyone would want to pair with someone with such an obvious weakness was beyond him, both of them had obvious weaknesses, the one in blue had a rock, and the wings was a weakness in of themselves.

"Alright, now we saw that you have some type of fire powers, yet we never got a name for you, what is it," the boy in blue asked the fire demon, he could tell them the truth, but humans have already proven inept about all of this, he could tell a full lie, but he knows they'll find holes in it.

He decided to have give them some half-truths and vague answers, "Hiei Jaganshi, and yes I do have fire powers that enhances all my physical abilities," that was the truth, somewhat, "and I don't need a team, I'm more than capable to handle a factory on my own," that was true as well.

"You're an unknown to us, J'onn we can understand the unknown with him, we can understand the unknown with Diana, but not with you, with you we only just met you and all we have to go on is who you are, and the fact you didn't help until asked by J'onn," the one in black stated.

Hiei weighed his options, the one in black was clearly the smartest of the group given how he pieced that together so quickly, but what to tell them, the truth or continue with the vague lie he started, though he could tell them a complete lie, the detective's lie, "we're waiting," wings stated.

"I've been given a mission to report on what the outcome of this invasion will be, if the invasion is repelled, I get to go home to my own plain of existence, if the invasion is successful… well everyone will be dead anyway, I was chosen for expendability," that was the honest part.

The others looked at him honestly a bit shocked that someone would be chosen on a mission like this just because they were expendable and they were using a path to his own home to force cooperation, it was the one in black that spoke up, "fine, me, you, J'onn, and Diana, let's go." Hiei glared at the back of his head but decided it was easier to follow instead of arguing and getting himself a headache, or so he thought, the one in black flew inside of his plain while he stood on top of it and Diana and J'onn flew beside each other, they were going to Egypt.

* * *

Egypt

The factory didn't look that big, but Hiei could tell there were many other roots that dug deep into the ground as it pumped the nutrients from there into the sky, however one of the most noticeable features was that there were no openings for them to get inside other than the obvious. The man in black, who was now known to Hiei as Batman, peaked out from behind the corner of the ruble they were hiding behind to get a good look at it, a tripod walked by and he went back into hiding, the Amazon though, "hiding like cowards is not the Amazon way," Diana stated.

Batman looked back to the machine, "they must have a weakness, when we find it we'll strike," he argued back, and the fire demon nodded as well, he didn't like hiding either, but if they were going to get through this then they needed to be smart about it and not go in blind.

J'onn then phased up from the floor before going tangible again, "I have scouted the outer walls, there are no opening," that was a bit more suspicious, they may be nocturnal but that still meant that some opening should be there for after the blot out the sun, that doesn't sound very good.

"Then we'll make our own," Diana said before flying off, J'onn was going to stop her before Batman put his arm up, the message was clear, the woman took off her lasso and wrapped it around one of the legs of a tripod before taking it around the legs of the creature. She finally stopped on the 'knee' of it and said, "Hera, give me strength," and pulled with all her might, the legs closed together and it tripped and fell into the wall, crumbling under the weight of the invader life form, Diana stood on its head and gestured to her opening, "there's your opening."

"Not bad," Batman commented at her direct approach, Hiei used his speed to phase to the leg before jumping in while J'onn only flew up and into the hole while finally Batman used a grappling gun to shoot at the edge of the hole and was rocketed up and into the hole where he landed.

Diana was blocking lasers with her bracelets while the invaders fired, Hiei sped past the first and second and got to the third before incinerating him with his fire and jumping to roundhouse kick the other one down before putting his hand on his chest and incinerating that invader as well. The last one ran away from him and was about to hit a stream of light before he stumbled to avoid it and continued to run, Hiei saw that and from the look of Batman, he did as well, "they run like cowards, what are you waiting for," Diana asked as she ran further inside the base. They ran throughout the base until eventually invaders blocked their path and they had to change directions, they ran again until it happened again and they had to hold off and change until they were blocked again, "they've blocked us off again," she said as she blocked their fire.

"It's almost as if they know what we're thinking," Batman said as he took out and explosive batarang from his belt and threw it at them where it exploded and made them scatter themselves, he looked back, "any ideas J'onn," he was unmoving now, "J'onn," he said louder.

J'onn's eyes stopping glowing and he replied, "Superman and Hawkgirl are down, they have failed, I can sense it," so that was their names, the one in blue must be Superman and the winged one was Hawkgirl, "this way, hurry," he said again and went down a different path.

They ran as many other doors closed around them in a liquid type of substance that solidified to block their path, one opened behind them and blocked their way, Hiei looked back at sent a spiraling flame their way that burned them before they got to a wall that blocked their path. Close to the ceiling of the wall was a hole that J'onn and Diana flew up to go through while Hiei jumped up and Batman fired a grappling hook to reach the top, the ran and rounded a corner and Hiei looked back, "we lost them for the moment," he told them as he looked back at them.

Batman put on a knuckle that seemed to be electrified now that he had a moment, "look," J'onn called their attention and they walked over to him to see what seemed to be a control station around them, "it's the central core, we remove the ion matrix crystal the whole plant will shut down."

"I can get it, I just need a diversion," Hiei told them and they nodded, Batman took out and threw a batarang that cut through a pipe while Diana grabbed a tube and pulled it loose to douse them with gas to get the attention on them, J'onn got ready for a fight while Hiei made his move. He seemingly blurred out of existence in a quick shimmer before reappearing in the same manner in front of the crystal, the invaders began firing on them while Diana blocked and J'onn phased through and began attacking them, Batman jumped down and attacked with his electric knuckles. Hiei used his enhanced resistance to grab the crystal from within the containment unit, to be honest it burned a lot more than what he first thought but pushed through it until he finally pulled it free and jumped off the platform, yet was unable to get down safely do to the invaders shooting.

They shot at him so much while he was in mid-air and unable to use his fire effectively from holding the crystal as well, he got hit multiple times, Diana flew over to him and grabbed him from the ground while Batman ordered, "get him out, now," while throwing an invader off him. J'onn was going to get the crystal but Batman beat him to it, J'onn flew out of there instead along with Diana and Hiei, they flew faster than Batman though, and because of that they were able to get out before the door closed, sadly though, Batman wasn't fast enough and it closed on him.

Hiei regained his senses just in time to see it and ran off and slammed his fist into it, someone sacrificed themselves, he was no stranger to death, but having it have to happen now of all times wasn't desired, in any form, however sudden blasts shot the door and dented it before going back. Hiei made to knock it down with a fist of the mortal flame before J'onn put a hand on his shoulder, "wait, there's nothing more we can do for him, he's gone," he told him openly, though with his mind said, 'you know as well as I that he's alive, I'm mentally shielding him but you feel him.'

Hiei didn't make any move that the mental notice got through just shrugged off his shoulder and turned around to walk away with a grunt, "Hera, help us," Diana prayed to her gods since nobody else was going to help them right now, or at all really, but they didn't need to know right now.

* * *

Metropolis

Hiei, J'onn, and Diana all left Egypt and flew, or in Hiei's case ran, to Metropolis in order to meet up with the Flash and Green Lantern, they waited on a rooftop and watched the city destroy itself, "perhaps mother was right about mankind, they're nothing but untamed savages," Diana stated.

"Do not judge them too harshly," J'onn stated sagely, or as sagely as one could when speaking for mankind, "they act out of fear," they watched as the other two came and Green Lantern stopped and helped trapped kids while Flash was just, ironically, behind him probably because he got lost.

"Sorry we're late," Green Lantern apologized when he finally landed and Flash came in on the other side, "had to stop and help some civilians, but what did you call us back for, and where is Batman," he asked not really liking what is clear to him and everyone else, he hated it.

"Superman's been captured, he's trapped somewhere inside there with Hawkgirl," Diana pointed to the factory in the distance, thunder rang in the distance like an ominous omen, she decided not to mention Batman, she didn't like the loss of a friend, even if she didn't know him for very long.

"Batman acted heroically… to the very end," J'onn decided to be the one to inform them since Hiei wouldn't really tell them with any tact and truth be told he didn't really care, but to put up with these people effectively he had to make it seem like he did care, and he really hated that.

"This is not good, definitely not good," Green Lantern growled out while walking over to the edge of the building roof, thunder rumbled in the distance again, they all snuck over to the factory and hid behind ruble, "if Superman and Hawkgirl are in there, someone's gotta rescue 'em."

Flash looked hesitant to go in one of those things, "I just can't believe we're doing this again," he then turned to look at J'onn, "you are sure they're still in there, aren't you," he asked just to be safe, he didn't answer for a moment so Flash prodded again, "J'onn," he called his attention.

"Yes," J'onn finally told them, "your friends are alive, but we must act quickly, the Imperium is coming," he said ominously to the confused heroes, "the supreme intelligence that controls these invaders, we have met before," the others looked apprehensive now, questioning the Martian.

"Okay, we're going in, Flash, create a diversion, Diana watch my back," Green Lantern ordered, and Flash zoomed off through the legs of a tripod while the others went in and past the giant while the Flash picked up a rock and through it at the tripod hitting it on the head.

It looked over and down at the red clad fool waving his arms around before putting them to his mouth to call out, "tag, you're it," before blowing him a raspberry and running off to avoid to laser blasts, it walked out of the smoke from the blasts to see Flash by a bolder, "not even close." He yawned to emphasize this point, "come on slow poke, I dare ya, over here," he called out as the tripod walked his way and lifted his foot before it stepped down as the Flash speed away, it exploded though, "ooh, you really stepped in it that time," it fell over and exploded.

Hiei and the others snuck around until they were beside a pumping tube before they either flew or speed into a hole previously made by either Superman or Hawkgirl that wasn't healed, they flew through and down a path until Lantern asked, "where are they being held?"

"This way," J'onn informed before changing directions and landing down a path, the others did as well and Hiei slowed his pace to keep them in his sights just as Flash also caught up with them, they then heard some alien chatter and backed against a wall for cover before they were seen. J'onn looked around the corner barely and then looked back to them, "wait here," they nodded before he turned back and turned into an alien invader and went around the corner and talked in the same language, the invaders came around the corner before J'onn came up and stuck his hand through them.

"Is it just me or does he creep you out too," Flash asked absently, and even Hiei had to agree that he was a bit creeped out by the Martian, but decided not to voice it as they continued to walk for a while, this place was bigger than what he first thought it was, thankfully they had a guide.

"We are close now," J'onn said after they had been walking for some time, they soon came to a wall that he put his hand against as if searching for something, "I sense they are somewhere beyond these walls," Diana came to give it a push, but it didn't budge from her power.

"Stand back," Green Lantern said as he approached and focused his power into a concentrated blast of emerald light, Hiei could sense something big approaching, so while Lantern was using his laser, Hiei decided to unwrap his arm wrappings to reveal his black dragon markings to them all.

Since he was behind them they didn't see what he was doing so they had no way of knowing why or that he even did that, but soon Green Lantern broke through and made a full circle so they could see what was inside of it, Superman and Hawkgirl were being held upside down in the room. Diana, Green Lantern, and Flash both ran up to their comrades as J'onn stepped into the room, Hiei did so as well and felt something off, but thought that this was a good opportunity for him, J'onn said something, "wait, something is not right," he said and both of their red eyes opened.

The wall behind them sealed shut and Green Lantern ran to it to get there before it closed, he was too late, "it's a trap," small holes opened in the wall and in came gas that was designed to knock them out, Hiei could have done something as everyone was chocking, but decided not to.

"Lantern… your ring," Diana said as she too was going down, Flash seemed to already be out like a light and J'onn was on the ground fading fast, but soon so she was as well, Hiei held out for as long as he could to make it look like he was struggling, but he too was sent to the floor as well.

Lantern was down to his stomach from already inhaling the yellow mist, "can't focus, can't," he too was fast asleep after that, and the last one down was Hiei as he watched the fake Superman say something to the fake Hawkgirl, he closed his eyes and let his own plan begin after.

* * *

Later

Hiei awoke to the sound of Superman calling out to J'onn, "J'onn, J'onn, wake up," said man was also groaning and waking up slowly as he got a look around saw that everyone else was captured, "you shouldn't have risked your lives for us," he told the Martian in the same position now.

"Would you have done less for me," J'onn asked back, though Superman didn't answer that, he couldn't because the others soon awoke as well from his left, Superman was on his right, Diana on Superman's right, above them was Hawkgirl, Lantern on her left, and Hiei on his left.

"Earth's mightiest heroes," an invader called out as it was on a platform, it shifted form to a man, "welcome," Hiei heard Superman mutter a 'Senator Carter', "unfortunately, the real Carter never returned from Mars, and thankfully we used that to have you weaken Earth's defenses. You were so eager to cooperate, thanks to you the humans were totally helpless against us, and now it's over," the invader said as he opened a hole in the ceiling with a control panel, down from a large ship came a still quite large ship, carrying one thing, "all hail the Imperium."

The group of soldiers now all bowed as the bottom of the ship jet out some steam and then before them floated a large bubble of black and purple with tentacles at the bottom of the creature, the soldiers formed two lines and the creature floated between them looking right at J'onn. "J'onn J'onzz, it's been a long time," there was no mouth moving so it was obviously speaking through telepathy, it motioned with its tentacles and brought forth J'onn's organic seeming binds to set him in front of him directly, two invaders came to J'onn with electric prodder type poles. The touched his body and the other could only watch in horror as J'onn writhed in agony before he reverted to what Hiei could only assume was his normal form without the blue cape or trunks before collapsing on the ground, "much better, you have defied us for centuries."

J'onn began to rise from his laying position to look the thing in its nonexistent eyes when he said, "and I will never bow before you or any of your kind," he said defiantly as he stood up fully and stared at the being without any hesitation of any kind, Hiei would applaud him if he wasn't bound.

"Then we will personally see to finishing what should have been accomplished long ago, the elimination of the last Martian," the Imperium said as it took it's tentacles and dug them deep into J'onn's skin and looked to be about to rip him apart before taking him deep inside of himself. The series of electric shocks that followed forced him to yell out in pain to force him to submit, "yield to us, J'onn J'onzz," the Martian struggled more, "why do you resist, embrace this truth, after all these years, you have finally lost," the Imperium pressed his winning to J'onn.

Hiei now knew that this was the final time to act, summoning his dark flame and letting it coat his right arm before breaking the rough material holding the others, at the same time of his release he struck at his left arm binding and leg bindings and jumped off before an explosion occurred. That explosion was soon revealed to be Batman, hanging off of the area holding the crystal powering the factory they were in, "I mentally shielded him so he couldn't be detected," J'onn explained before Batman put in a devise in the containment area of the crystal turning it from red to blue.

"I reversed the ion charge," Batman stated stoically while they invaders shot at the crystal to destroy it, but it was shielded, Hiei turned and destroyed Superman's organic bindings with four well placed dark flamed punches as the effects took hold of the factory and shot beams out of it. Those beams did an interesting thing to the clouds that were blotting out the sun, they dispersed them and at the right time too, because of the time of day it brought out the sun and showed off the invader's weaknesses, Batman got to Diana and brought out a tool for laser cutting.

The sun burned all invaders, including the Imperium, as he began to burn he lost his grip on J'onn who burst out of the blob of mass and brought it out further into the sun, "you live underground and shun the light, why, does it burn your pale, putrid skin," J'onn asked as he pulled the tentacles.

"Ultraviolet rays, coming from the depths of space, the invaders have no resistance to our sun's radiation," Batman informed before the invaders shot at them and Superman went to the platform and raised it to where there was a shield to protect them from the oncoming blasts.

"So you did find that weakness after all," Diana said as she broke free from her bindings, Hiei moved and destroyed the Lantern's holdings so he could use his ring on the others, Hiei sped to the ceiling before rocketing down to the ground with flaming fists lit up with dark flames. The invader in the form of Carter was obliterated with a single punch before another one had a hole through his chest, using that as a launching pole of sorts he grabbed it with his left hand jumped over the dead alien to back heal kick the one behind it, before tossing the corpse. It landed on two more invaders before Hiei sent a wave of fire that incinerated them on impact, he checked to see what happened with the others, Hawkgirl was taking her mace to the invaders knocking them into nothing left and right, Flash was running past them at speeds to force them down. Green Lantern used the energy in his ring to force an air bubble around some that pushed them into the ground, Superman and Diana went for the ceiling and decided to break the walls to let more sunlight pass inside so that the invaders could burn alive from their time in the sun.

Soon those that could fly joined in to destroy the ceiling and began to tear away at it, and yet the one thing they couldn't do was let the Imperium get away, but when J'onn was forced to take more pain in small bursts then he was able to handle, he was knocked out and forced to let go. The invading leader began to go back and into his ship so that he could escape, Hiei couldn't let that happen, so he sped to a piece of the roof that hasn't been broken yet and charged up his final attack, and when the ship carrying the Imperium was lined up with the larger one, he fired. "Dragon of the Darkness Flame," the large black dragon made from fire was forced from his hands and shot through the sky, incinerating the smaller ship as well as a part of the much larger ship as well, the large force was then called back and forced to eat the rest of the ship as well after that.

Superman and Flash all gathered the civilians and got them out of there thanks to Lantern's constructs, Diana carried Batman out of the falling apart factory from the repeated attacks, Hawkgirl carried Flash out while the others flew, Hiei was already out of the factory and ran. The others watched as their work was smoking, incinerating, and all around burned to the ground, it was almost over, all that was left was to clean up the remaining invaders that stuck around, it took a little time but they eventually destroyed all of the remaining invaders.

* * *

After the invasion

Hiei was walking along the path to where the only portal left for emergencies to spirit world would be, it was in a back ally going into a random building, but it was really a front for the portal to spirit world, only, there was no portal, no way to access it, he banged on the door a few times. After that he blasted it down and went through the smoking ruins, only to find the only object in there to be a slab of concrete that would usually hold the portal on it, a usually glowing green rectangular portal with a circular swirl in it, used for agents other than ferry girls to use. Yet there was no portal, nothing, there was only a slab of concrete, he slammed his fist in it and something floated down from on top of it, he didn't see it because the slab of concrete was ten feet tall, so what floated down from the force of his strike was a yellow note, it was snatched and read.

"Hiei, I was able to view quickly that things were not looking good, and it is at this point where I wrote this, spirit world has been sealed up forever, souls will still be able to get here when they die, but from this point on nothing else can get to here or demon world, never again I'm afraid. I'm only writing to you as a courtesy, it is clear to me that the heroes will fail now that three of their best, Superman, Hawkgirl, and Batman are dead, so I've ordered the entrance to be closed for good so the invaders won't make it to spirit world, if you've never found this I'm sorry. If you have found this then know that I've saved Yukina, Kurama and his mother, Yusuke and his family, and even Kuwabara and his family is safe, depending on the outcome of you finding this know that they are safe and now you will need to find a reason to keep on living now. I would ask you not to do anything reckless but we both know you, if the invaders won, stay safe while taking them all out, if the invaders lost despite what I'm seeing to be highly unlikely, please help the people, be a villain to help or a hero to help, stay safe and again sorry, Koenma."

Hiei wanted to roar, he wanted to scream until his energy was gone, finally use that trick to use his life energy to end things for him, but he knew he couldn't, that was the cowards way out, and he was a warrior, a true warrior made for killing, but now he has nothing to live for, nothing at all. Except maybe that one thing, he got a message from the other heroes to meet them on a building called the Daily Planet, he didn't go the first time they called, but now it was the third time, he ignored it and came here to finally go back after killing the last of the invaders here in Japan. It wasn't too late though, he could use that call to see what hey wanted he supposed, and if it was a way to get information then he would use that to his advantage, he wouldn't become a hero per say, but he will use the heroes to find a new way to get back to spirit world, he will return home.


	2. In Blackest Night

Hiei's Justice

Chapter 2

In Blackest Night

If you told Hiei a month and a half ago that he'd be standing in a space station to learn how to fly a jet able to travel both on earth and in space with a very realistic simulator, then he'd use the darkness flame to consume you in a fire so hot that not even Superman can get out unburnt. That little call a month and a half ago was actually a call to invite him to be a part of some group called the 'Justice League', made up of those that fought in the invasion of earth against the invaders, except Batman since he isn't really a joiner and would prefer to work with them part-time. Since Hiei didn't really have anywhere to go and knew that it was likely that he'd get some entertainment and be kept busy with them, he decided to join full-time, this way he should be able to go places with 'credibility' in search for a way to unseal the path back home.

What's more is that he decided to 'claim' Japan as his stomping ground, similar to how Batman had Gotham and Superman had Metropolis, he now had Japan as a whole to watch out for, and he was actually doing a good job so far, though he wasn't able to kill the humans he caught. The stray demons though that were still active were fair game, dispatching them was quick and left no evidence, he was quickly becoming Japan's number one hero, though he was still a mystery to many since he 'just showed up out of nowhere' according to the news at least.

Sadly to do this, he had to reveal what he truly was, a demon, got very confusing when Wonder Woman questioned why he was up from the underworld, said that he'd explain later, just never said when, told them how he came to be here and why he was trapped on this side of the plain. They asked him what they can do to help, he said to stay out of his way since he knew they couldn't help him getting to the other side of life, they agreed but if he needed their help with anything he could ask, he just grunted and went on his way back to Japan to demon hunt.

"Watch your vectors," the voice of Hawkgirl broke into his thoughts from behind him, she was his chaperone for this simulation since everyone else was busy, he had memorized the manual last night but this simulator was more of a realistic exorcise, he adjusted the vectors, "you're learning."

"Hn," Hiei grunted, despite how she comes across, she was actually a patient teacher, if you had experience and you messed up she wasn't, but if you were new to flying or anything, then she was patient, it surprised him quite a bit, everyone else too since they whispered about it earlier.

"Not bad, when's my turn," Flash asked while looking over the fire demon's shoulder, that one was by far the most annoying human that Hiei had ever met, only one more annoying would be a tie between the boy-scout Superman, and the big oaf Kuwabara, he hated them the most.

"You have been working quite well up here in space," J'onn said as he came from the elevator to check on his progress, he had been up here the most besides Hiei and Hawkgirl, they had both been trying to get the fire demon use to space and advanced technologies so he wouldn't be a weak link.

"It is difficult to fail if you take the time to hone your craft and refine technique," Hiei stated bluntly and sagely, he does that often, his way of coping with not having the fox there to give him advice, it was the end of the simulator and he landed it down quite hard, "damn, need to watch that."

"Yes, but you did quite well for your first try in the simulator, especially given that you've never even flown in a plain before," Hawkgirl commented as he stepped out, he made to correct her when she interrupted, "standing on top while Batman flies his plane doesn't count," she informed.

Hiei would have argued about that but alarms started going off around them at that time, "it's an incursion," J'onn stated as they rushed to the nearest window just in time to see large red men with blue gloves and boots rocket out of space and into the atmosphere of Earth, descending quickly. "I'll notify the others," they quickly all left and headed for the hanger where they waited for J'onn, when he got in he quickly notified them, "Wonder Woman is on another case, Superman is dealing with an earthquake, Batman would only say that he's busy, and I couldn't reach Green Lantern." Hawkgirl piloted the jet and they headed down for the planet where the aliens landed and began descending silently as the red robots walked around in search for something, "stop," J'onn commanded as him and Hawkgirl flew the Flash down and Hiei just phased in, "what do you want here?"

"John Stewart, the Green Lantern," the robot asked with an authoritative tone, one you would find in law enforcement of some kind, so one space cop was trying to arrest another space cop, this was going to just be one huge headache after another one, "and it is none of your concern why."

The robot began to walk forward until Hawkgirl got in his way with a low angle and her mace ready to strike, "wanna bet," the robot swiped at her but she dodged and swung with her mace, it grabbed the hander and swung her backwards over his shoulder with ease letting go of her mace.

Flash ran to catch her while Hiei brought out his sword and swung it after just appearing behind one of them, it scrapped against the metal man but that was it, didn't leave anything more than a scratch, so he went with a different tactic while J'onn took on another one, and losing to it. Hiei decided that if his normal blade wouldn't work, he'd use another blade, the robot turned and was about to backhand him, but the demon was too fast for the machine and appeared above it again, this time coating his sword in dark flames, it allowed him to pierce the skull of the thing. He always went with the killing blows, no need to draw out the fight any longer than needed, and they only needed one alive, he jerked the blade out of the robot and went to fight with the next one and was able to see J'onn go flying thanks to an electric staff they carried.

The other two just stood there with narrowed eyes at the fire coming off the sword, their sensor's couldn't even tell how he did that, they should have been able to calculate where he would appear in an instant, but they didn't because their reports suggested no lethal force was ever used here. It was around that time when Hawkgirl came in and knocked one in the back of their head with her mace sending it to the ground, she was going to attack the other one, but it put up its staff to block her mace before sending an electric blast that sent her flying into a restaurant and into a wall. The Flash came in to try and speed around them, but the same one stuck out his staff and knocked it into flash and made him tumble to the ground with a role just as she came out of the wall and flew to him to check on him, "why do I feel like a hockey puck," he questioned, he was fine.

Hiei speed their way with his sword, they began walking again in search for Green Lantern, the one on the left raised his electric staff over his head to attack Hawkgirl while the one on the right stuck out its staff and electrified it to send a blast behind him to strike at the demon with it. Hawkgirl was caught and electrocuted before being slammed down onto a car while the one that fired missed do to the predictability of the shot, and it was just so slow to reach him that it was easy to dodged, the mistake cost the robot its legs before he was cut diagonally at the right shoulder.

The one that slammed Hawkgirl down was about to jab her with the electrified staff when the voice of Superman said, "back off," before flying into the machine and made it crash into a building, he was about to punch him again the robot shot at him from below with the staff. If forced the man of steel back with a powerful laser that he struggled to get past, when he did he grabbed the end of it and broke it before ripping it from the robot's hands with both of his before breaking it again and throwing the pieces away and body slamming him into the ground.

"We thought you were busy with an earthquake," Flash asked Superman as he speed to behind the big man, the man of steel said it was just a 4.0 as Hiei walked past them calmly and stood before the robot as it was getting back up, it looked to be ready to fight again though, great.

"Before you try and fight idiotically again and let us prove that you are hopelessly outmatched against us, why not tell us why it is you are after the Green Lantern of this planet, surely a machine such as yourself would see the more logical sense of this situation," Hiei offered it.

Instead of continuing to fight, it decided to talk since it would be pointless to fight more, "the Green Lantern known as John Stewart is wanted by the high tribunal of Adjouris 5 for the complete destruction of an entire planet, Adjouris 4," the robot informed them much to their shock.

"John would never do such a thing, he isn't the type to do something so terrible," Hawkgirl snarled at the robot, while marching to him and grabbing him by the throat to lift him up with a mace ready, "and you better go back to your tribunal and tell them that, and he's not guilty."

"Yes I am," the familiar voice of Green Lantern called down to them as he floated down to their level, he had his head down in shame at what he'd supposedly done, he used his ring to separate them from the red robot and began walking to the thing, he looked back to them, "stay out of this."

With that order given he turned back to look at the red robot, "your ring," it said as it stuck out its hand, John brought up his hand and gave it his ring, "you will come with me," the robot said as it placed cuffs on the Green Lantern, a yellow light shown down upon them before it retracted them away.

They all decided to go back up to the watchtower, thanks to the psychic connection he had previously been establishing with the rest of the team, J'onn probed some of his mind but was too far by now to see anything other than, "I sense turmoil within his mind," which was the obvious.

"I could've told you that," Flash commented as Superman began walking to the holographic projector and began to pull up a map of Adjouris 5, "we have to go help, who knows what kind of corrupt system they have there, they are probably framing him for something he didn't even do."

"It pains me to say it, literally physically pains me to say it, but I… agree with the red buffoon," Hiei commented as he walked up to the map and everyone deadpanned stares at him, he ignored them, "and Lantern doesn't seem the type to do something without meaning behind it."

"That's true," Superman stated as they all filed out and headed for the jet that they used to fly in, Hiei being the last and therefore set in the back as they made their way forward, it did take some time before they made it to the planet, and when there, "initiate landing procedure," he stated.

He was about to push a button when three ships were beginning to fire on them, and they didn't seem to want to stop either and given that Flash just stated, "they're not responding to our signal," it didn't seem like they wanted to put up with uninvited people showing up to the trial.

"It's clear what they want," Hawkgirl said as she was about to press a button, "I say we give it to them," that did sound like a viable option, but they came here to help Lantern, not to start a war while they were there to help him, the earth would not survive a war with another race so soon.

Which must be why Superman grabbed her wrist and pulled it away, "no, we're not here to start a war," he said as he got up and motioned for the flyers to all do the same, "Hiei, you take the controls, think of it as some more practice for your landing," he smirked to the demon as he went.

Hiei didn't give the man of steel the satisfaction of responding and instead just took his place on the controls and began to fly the machine, blasting from the flyers began to force him to lower the aircraft to avoid them aiming for the jets and stranding them on the planet for some time yet. This brought him down to the city levels, he used his superior demon reflexes to turn the jet and make sure he didn't crash into anything, though at one point he got a notice that two ships were on a collision course for him while coming on opposite sides of the ship, behind and in front.

"Dude," Flash warned as he also saw the ships in front of them, but the fire demon kept on going, they were at least competent enough to know to go for his wings since they got in position to do that, "dude, we're not all immune to fire like you," the red buffoon exclaimed to help warn him.

At the last second, Hiei turned the jet to where the enemy aircraft passed right through them with him in the middle but the sudden action caused them to both lose their focus and the fire demon saw the surprised ship stumble from the action caused since it swerved while in mid-air. That was what he wanted because now since the pilot was shook, he brought the jet they were in up and gently began to lower it until it was on top of the enemy aircraft, once it noticed this it began to go lower and lower until it did a small crash landing on a strip that was clear of civilians.

The fire demon began flying the plane normally now and waited until the others were done and came back to the jet, "good job out there," Superman complimented as he moved forward and Hiei got up so that he could take his place to pilot the aircraft so they could fly to Lantern.

* * *

Adjouris 5 tribunal

Inside the courtroom held a floating man talking to the crowd, "there is no excuse for this horror, and there can be no escape from punishment, an example must be made," the speaker was obviously some kind of prosecutor, so it was with delight that Hiei and the league interrupted him.

Superman burned a hole in the dome surrounding the courtroom and floated in, followed by J'onn carrying Flash, Hawkgirl flying in, and then Hiei phasing to the melted part before phasing away and landing where Superman also landed, "order, we will have order, remove the intruders immediately."

Two average sized 'bailiffs' came forward on hovering crafts to begin the removal, but Superman immediately stopped them by grabbing them as if clotheslining them and then tossing them away, some red robots like before began to move forward when Superman spoke up to avoid a fight. "Wait, we apologize for disrupting these proceedings, but John Stewart is our friend," coming under the guise of coming to comfort a friend, nice touch, but he just ostracized them from the crowd so nobody would talk to them so they could do some detective work to help Lantern now.

"This is a public trial," the female judge head admitted, "very well, you may take seats in the gallery, but this tribunal will not tolerate any further outbursts," Superman nodded to the condition and they went to their seats to listen to the rest of the trial that was sure to be rigged.

The prosecutor was ready for his first witness by this point, "I call Kanjar-Ro," in came a strange looking humanoid being that slumped like he had something to hide, after talking with a bailiff, he was put on a platform and rose up to meet the prosecutor, "state your name and profession."

"Kanjar-Ro, I'm… a pirate," so this man in blue with pink skin came to testify against someone else, "now, I may steal some things now and again but it's nothing compared to what he did," he accused looking back towards Green Lantern and emphasized it with a pointing of his finger.

The crowd chattered amongst themselves while the prosecutor pushed a button on his floating podium stand and a pale white beam came from over Kanjar-Ro to hold some purpose that Hiei didn't know, "tell us about your encounter with John Stewart," the prosecutor ordered the pirate.

"It all started with these blasters I… found, I was on my way to sell them to some rebels on Adjouris 4 when he showed up, I figured he was gonna try to stop me so I shot first, his ring tore out my engine but his still wasn't done with me, wanted to know if I was working with anyone. I told him to turn around and see for himself, he tried to shoot my friends but his beam bounced off their deflector shield and shot toward Adjouris 4, there it hit a volcanic fault line… starting a devastating chain reaction, three billion… that's how many were on that planet," he testified.

The prosecutor had no more questions for the witness, "this account is most disturbing, we will recess… 20 petacycles," the tribunal ordered and let everyone stretch their legs and think on what they've been told in a horrible account, though it was clear that it wasn't adding up to something.

Superman, Flash, J'onn, Hawkgirl walked up to Green Lantern while Hiei remained back to think on a few things himself, that story had too many holes in it, and based on Lantern's reaction, it was all true, but it still didn't feel right and his instincts were screaming that at him about it. He absently looked up to look at the destroyed planet and saw the impossible, now he wasn't very knowledgeable on the subject, but he believes that Adjouris 4 has a moon still, a moon that shouldn't exist anymore, let alone stay in the same orbital pattern that it was staying in. He began to search using his demon energy and didn't tell anything since they were too far away, so he raised it higher and was touching the edge of something, but he needed to go even higher, so he did and caused everyone else to gawk at him for releasing so much energy. It was then that he felt it, an entire planet of souls and spirit energy coming from where Adjouris 4 was supposed to be, that damn bastard Kanjar-Ro must have been paid to play everyone for a fool to sow discord into the ranks of the Green Lantern corps, this is just annoying.

"Hiei, turn it off," Superman shouted to the demon that was causing a scene to those that were still in the court room and saw it, when he brought the energy down the others flew or ran up to him to find out what was going on, "what were you doing that required you to release so much?"

"I was stretching my sensing ability to reach to this Adjouris 4, I found spirit energy living up there, an entire planets worth, so I imagine that what we are seeing now is an illusion cast by a powerful thing, living or machine, I've known a few psychics that could potentially do that after some time." They all looked to him like he was mad until he pointed up to where the supposedly destroyed planet was, "are destroyed planets supposed to have their own moon still in orbit," the look he gave them was all deadpan, and when they looked up and saw he was right, they looked and he was smug.

"Fine, we'll go check it out, J'onn and Hiei are with me, Hawkgirl and Flash, you two stay here and buy us some time in court," at least Superman wasn't as idiotic as some of the others, he at least let the fool do what he did best, make a fool out of himself to distract their foes while they work.

"You're asking the world's fastest man to slow things down," Flash gave them a deadpan look as he said that, or at least as deadpan as he could give them with his eyes covered, "won't be easy," he finished the statement as he started, a deadpan look, Hiei left them to get back to the jet.

The other two flew there to catch up with him, when he got there he noticed the energy of Kanjar-Ro, he turned around and stared him down as he watched from the shadows, J'onn and Superman flew in and lowered the ramp, "so what do you expect we will find," J'onn asked them.

"Whatever that little worm is hiding," Hiei said and with a rush of speed struck the pirate in the back of his neck making him fall forward and into the ground where Hiei dragged him towards the jet, "he was following us and now we're going to find out what he knows on our way." As the worthless scum was tossed into the back of the jet, they took off and headed for the illusion that was cast over a world, J'onn rose from his seat in the co-pilot's chair and approached the awakening alien that looked up with defiance in his eyes, though a hint of fear edged in it.

"You have very few choices Kanjar-Ro, you can talk with me and let us finish this as quickly as possible," J'onn began to tell him and earned a bit of a grunt from Hiei, "or you can deal with my colleague here, who doesn't mind roasting your flesh until there is nothing but ash covering you."

Hiei walked forward until he knelt before the pirate, and placed a hand to the criminal's shin, just above his ankle, "did you know that human skin melts at 212 degrees, that is in Fahrenheit, however I've known aliens to have much tougher skin," his hand began smoking now. Superman looked very uncomfortable at being witness to a torture technique of any kind, and he wasn't sure the mental torture would work, Batman wasn't here for his interrogation, "do you smell that, it smells like cattle being grilled," and Hiei seems natural at playing the 'bad cop'.

The man wanted to scream, but before he could J'onn spoke up, "if you don't talk I'm not sure what the worth of the money that you got would be if you're not around to even use it at all," the point that was made was a valid one, and the alien knew it too, so he decided to talk.

"Fine, just get the fire starter away from me," Kanjar-Ro pleaded, he might have talked with just Hiei but the point that J'onn gave was good as well, so the fire demon backed off and let the alien talk, "I was paid to put on that show that put the Green Lantern under prosecution for the crime."

"We already figured that out," Hiei stated as took a single step forward and before the alien could blink was held by his throat while being slammed against the wall, "you better give us something we can use to get out of this mess or you will have me to contend with alone," the threat was clear.

"Fine, it's the Manhunters, they want revenge because long ago they were the Guardian's main source of army based fighting power, not the Green Lanterns, they wanted me to lead them away from their home world so that they'd be able to attack it and gain the power," Kanjar-Ro admitted.

"Finally something useful," Hiei stated as they began to approach the moon of the planet, "show us where the thing is that is hiding the planet," the fire demon ordered and the alien had no choice but to comply, it seems that fear works better than he thought with aliens as well as humans.

They were led to what looks like a very large generator of some kind, "when I was a child on Mars, we had small toys called illusitrons, they could project crude images over objects and even empty space, this is a larger version based on the engineering principles," J'onn informed.

They were outside the ship, all in space suits of grey base color and gold for the helmet and shoulders and belts, even Hiei was in one since he needed air to breath, the alien was in his own suit though of a blue and white color and peach colored helmet, all looking up at the projector. That is when Hiei turned to said alien, "you're very unlucky," the fire demon approached the alien who looked on in confusion, the other two also turned to the scene that was being played out before them, "now we don't need you anymore," the alien was then grabbed by the throat by him.

The fire demon's hands started to burn and the alien started to scream in fear as the suit started to burn as well before a hand grabbed Hiei's wrist, following it back revealed it to be Superman, "we don't kill Hiei, heroes don't kill," the grip began to tighten until Hiei was forced to let Kanjar-Ro go. Yet when the alien was released, the burning of his suit was already done, the air was sucked from him and when Superman turned to help him, Hiei used his own strength to smash the alien's helmet in, he was soon going to die, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, NOW HE'LL DIE," the boy scout yelled.

"Then it was his own fault for putting us through this and being weak," the fire demon remained in place and looked up to the giant machine as Superman turned to him, "and don't give me any pathetic drivel about life being sacred and death isn't justice, because I don't care, now go to Lantern."

Superman made to argue, but a hand on his shoulder form J'onn told him that it would be pointless, the fire demon had values that are not like the others, he's willing and able to kill at any point, so he decided to let it go for now but they would have a long talk when they got back. So there Hiei waited while the other two left to go confront the trial and provide a scene to give him the chance to destroy the projector, and he didn't have to wait long thanks to the advanced jet engine on the ship that brought them there, "that's your que Hiei," Superman finally contacted him.

Hiei charged up a large fist of the mortal flame and with a mighty yell ran straight through the line of machinery and destroyed it in a passive explosion, causing the planet to become visible again with no debris in the sky, "done, now someone come pick me up," he told into his ear.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on I see you now," Hawkgirl stated as she flew the jet past him and opened the ramp just as he jumped inside and closed it just as fast, Hiei walked up and sat in the passenger seat and buckled in, "we have to get back fast, the manhunters are making their move."

"Hn, obviously," he grunted out as they began the trip back to the trial planet to pick the others up, the entire time Hawkgirl remained silent and occasionally sent a look his way, he finally had enough as they began to land at a small tavern on the planet, "what," he demanded irritably.

"Superman told me and Flash how you killed Kanjar-Ro," she informed, so that was it, a lecture from someone else who didn't have any business in lecturing him, "we don't kill criminals, I know that you know that, no matter what he's done there is no reason to kill him," yep, a lecture.

"You don't kill criminals, I don't kill human criminals," Hiei told her as he got up from his seat and almost made it out before his arm was grabbed and he was forcefully spun around to face her, "alien criminals, monsters, if it's not human, I can kill it at my will, you know this," he informed.

"You can, but you shouldn't, killing a person of any race brings greater attention to you, what happens when people find out that you've killed as a part of a hero team, I've killed as a detective on Thanagar, but not as a hero," Hawkgirl told him before walking out herself to get them herself.

Hiei thought while she was in the building getting who they were here to get, more attention wasn't a good thing, that was true since he didn't want to be in the spotlight, he was better working in the shadows, so killing did bring attention to him, yet killing enemies were better. Killing was more efficient and didn't let those that done wrong come back to continue to do wrong, and while he was by no means a naïve fool that believed they could be reformed, he was a realist who knew that the governments of the world could and would retaliate if he did start killing. Usually he wouldn't even be considering anything that these humans or aliens were saying, but he needed a way to get to demon world, and to do that he needed to be able to go places as a hero without restriction, so he'll apologize when needed, and will only kill demons for now.

He turned in the direction of the ramp as he heard footsteps approaching up the entrance, in came some of the same group that Stewart was a part of, a fish-like humanoid creature, a squid thing, a guy with sharp fangs and pointed ear, a big round head with arms and legs attached. The last of the new additions along with Hawkgirl was a large creature that looked like a humanoid pig, all of them wearing the neon green that signified the green lantern corps, "great, let's hurry and leave this place," Hiei stated as Hawkgirl got in the pilot seat and took off into space.

* * *

Oa

The planet looked like a battlefield, blasts were coming from all direction on the central battery chamber, the Manhunters had already taken over the guns to most of the towers and have begun their attack on the chamber itself, that along with the actual field units of the attack. Stewart himself looked to be in trouble holding back blasts from reaching him and the Flash when they launched from the jet, the lanterns made quick work of the attackers on their fellow lantern they were in formation, Hawkgirl, fish, squid, beast, head, pig, Hiei standing on pig's back. The head was the one to issue the order to his fellow lanterns though, "you three take the north tower, Killowog and I will take the south," the ball head said, the fish, squid, and beast broke off and left the head and pig to head southward for that tower while Hiei jumped off of the pig.

The head made a shield while the pig made a green beam that cut the south tower in half, with the constant firing of blasters from the robots, the fire demon was forced to short wave teleport often to avoid being hit by them, soon he landed on the ground and witnessed Hawkgirl take a tower out. He raced up the long pathway of the chamber walls and took out as many Manhunters as he could with his sword, a few saw him coming though and blocked with their poles, they didn't last long to strike back since at the same instant they blocked received a flaming fist through their hearts. Hiei saw that Stewart flew to the top of the battery chamber and descended down, more than likely one of the robots got into the chamber, yet the battle still raged outside of the chamber, Hiei jumped over to the middle of a gathering of robots, who soon thought they could blast him. He quickly made them regret thinking that buy creating a vortex of flames and incinerating them, then moved on to more clusters of targets, sending out wave after wave of fire to burn them to ash, one though managed to avoid a wave and landed a hit on his face, he was cut to pieces.

Suddenly the battery began sparking with green electricity, the chamber top was exploding, and you could actually hear something say, "NOW, I AM THE POWER," before a huge Manhunter-like form broke through the top of the chamber and send random tendrils of electricity to attack. A few striking its own forces, and yet it did something else, it started sucking the power from the lantern rings present, leaving them vulnerable to the forces still firing upon them, Hiei speed to the pig as he was about to be blasted and incinerated the robots about to kill the corps member.

Just as suddenly as the big Manhunter monster came, it started to recede back into the chamber looking like a black goo over a green core until there was nothing but darkness in the sky for but a moment, a flicker of doubt across the face of those that served in the corps, was the power gone? Then suddenly the green beam of energy to signify the corps energy source shot up into the sky while also shooting something out of it, sparks started flying from it as well, they created small bursts of fireworks and the power returned to the lanterns who needed it to fight. It didn't take long before all the robots were gone and destroyed, thanks to the lantern corps and the Justice League team that came to help, it soon just became a mop-up operation for those that were left of the Manhunter's forces, Hiei chose to go wait on the ship so that they could go home.

With the help of Stewart, they all arrived quickly after a very touching moment he was sure, Hawkgirl began the launch procedures while Superman, Green Lantern, and Flash still stood and glared at Hiei from just in front of the ramp while the demon sat in a side chair away from them. It wasn't until Lantern walked up to him that the others did so as well, but it was Flash that began to talk, "dude, you killed someone, you don't feel sorry about it, and look like you would do it again," he pointed out in the demon's face, that wasn't appreciated, so Hiei stood up and glared.

"Let me tell all of you something you obviously haven't heard before, all of you are killers," they all recoiled in confused shock at the statement, "during the invasion, what did you think happened to those aliens that were disintegrated by the sun, they all died, and who killed them, all of you." The team looked at him with wide eyes, apparently none of them realized that fact till just now, "but yes, I did actively kill him, because you don't seem to understand something, you're not working with a hero when you work with me, I don't have the same moral code that you people do. My life has been kill or be killed, all of it, so I don't give criminals second chances, no hospitals that offer nothing but another chance at escape, no prison where they offer nothing at all for rehabilitation, the criminals I capture are demons who I just plain kill, it's as simple as that. I get to make that call, because of my morals, because of my ethics, because when it comes down to it, unlike the rest of you, I'm not a hero on the side of the angels, I'm not a villain on the side of the devil, I'm a villain who happens to be on the side of the angels," he told them emotionlessly.

The others just looked at him stunned, he just told them something they found impossible, told them that they were all killers and he was one too, difference was that he didn't care if he was, J'onn empathized with him, but still knew that his way of thinking was flawed, but it was his right. Green Lantern thought that this guy was just about as evil as the worst criminal he could think of, but at the same time, had a point, he wasn't a hero, he was a villain, but he was a villain on their side, he knew how they thought, so of course the former marine saw the tactical advantage. Flash and Superman were disgusted, with him and themselves for not realizing that they killed those aliens, even worse is that he himself admits to being a villain, and they were smart enough to know that having him on their side is better than him being the enemy, for now.

Hiei wasn't done speaking to them though, "though for now I'll avoid killing if it's not necessary, but do not ever believe that you can think of me as someone who shows mercy, because I have none," he walked to the back and sat in a back seat away from everyone else, and they let him.


	3. Paradise Lost

Hiei's Justice

Chapter 3

Paradise Lost

Eight months, that is how long Hiei has been stuck in the human world without a way to go home to demon world, he didn't know exactly where to search, research on a topic was more of Kurama's thing, but now he had to be the one to do the research to go home, and he hated it. He's looked through countless books on many different religious folklore and tales and have found that most of them were wrong, almost comically, but they were still the only thing he could look into without asking the others for aid, and he dreaded doing that more than he would care to admit. They still hadn't truly forgiven him for pointing out, very truthfully he might add, that they have all killed before and since he was technically aloud to do it, he had no actual trouble with killing an alien, though in retrospect he probably should have told them that the first month he was there.

Right now he wasn't aboard the watchtower, he was actually in the building that would have housed the portal to spirit world, it was an old abandoned warehouse that wasn't on the edge of the city, but right in the middle of it, he had brought in some tables and chairs to work on. He had been studying up on the chemistry of this world, wondering if he could combine some elements, take something and combine it to make a mixture to somehow reactivate the portal home, or at least to spirit world so that he could let them know that it was now safe to open back up. Though his efforts were getting him nowhere as the human compounds here all lacked a spirit enhancement that would allow him to make anything worth the use, and he has almost exhausted the uses of his current available technology, and it was primitive tech to begin with. The best thing he could do was connect to a nearby Wi-Fi to access the internet, it had a very limited storage space so he couldn't store many files on it, and yet the internet wasn't worth much at all, he had no idea what to search for, he tried being direct, being subtle, being both.

Now he was going through everything he had gathered so far, for the millionth time, and the same results as always came up, zero spiritual essence can be found within that stone slab, it was nothing more than that at the moment, and by all appearances, all it ever was until this moment. It was disappointing how much time he has used to research a way into a slab of concrete, maybe if he went a different route, he reached into a drawer and pulled out a map that held a map of the closest cities that he was in, maybe if he could follow the spiritual layout of them and find the center.

"Hn, that could work, but it would be risky and take a lot of time, not to mention I would need some of the most advanced of technologies if I were to accomplish it, anything that would help me tap into another dimension, or even something like that black whole that I've heard talk of. All of this assuming that I can find a focal point nearby to pull everything together, and if I'm right, it would have to be the right kind of focal point, I'd have to unlock spirit world first to get Yukina out of there, this could work, I just have to find the right path," Hiei theorized looking at the map.

That was when something happened that hasn't happened for many months, he got a call on his communicator, he didn't know he still had the damn thing, they made it clear that they didn't want anything to do with him, he put it in his ear, "this is Batman, are you there Hiei?"

Hiei thought about not answering and hanging up, but decided he better work on getting some of that tech sooner or later, "I'm here bat, what do you need me for, I was just about to make a breakthrough with an idea to getting home," that at least put the thought in the man head.

"Sorry to interrupt it, but Diana needs our help, I'm sending you some coordinates for you to head to so you can meet up with the others," Batman said as he typed keys into the computer, "though I do think you should be careful, they're still not too happy with you at the moment."

"It's been Six months, though I've held grudges for longer than them, but I'd rather they move past it because sooner or later they'll need my help and if they don't move past this they'll be too caught up in something petty to ask for it," the demon cut the transmission there to leave quickly. He gave one last look at the maps, narrowing his eyes at the paper before turning and leaving the building, it'd take him weeks to go through all of Japan to find the right place anyways, even longer to get the right equipment that can work with his Jagan, but this call from them was a start.

* * *

Museum rooftop

Maybe it wasn't a good start, when he got there, all he got from the league aside from Wonder Woman was glares, those of the league that were there to begin with, which was only Superman, Flash, and J'onn, and J'onn's glare was more akin to a blank stare than anything else though. Flash's glare was much more oppressive than Superman's, though that was mainly because the big blue boy scout was of a much more forgiving nature than the scarlet speedster, who at least had the thought process needed to know that now was not the time for jokes for the moment. They were on the top of the museum with Wonder Woman leaning against a skylight with Hiei himself leaning against the wall opposite to her, Superman, J'onn, and then Flash was directly in front of her and stood in front of the demon, all glaring over their shoulders at him.

Wonder Woman looked around confused at the glares towards the demon, "I still don't get why you three are glaring at Hiei so, no one has yet to give me an explanation for that or why we didn't call him in to help with the Aquaman issue when Orm was planning that attack."

"I can't speak for them personally on the issue of why you didn't call, but it would have helped, since demons often wish for the same thing as Atlantians for the rest of the humans, spare a select few of us of course, however in regards to why they are glaring at me, I took a life," he explained.

"Empathizing with their thought process would have been a bigger help, so it would have made sense to bring you in on it, yet I still don't get why they are glaring, they do know that they took lives before as well, correct," her question got Flash and Superman to look her way in shock. "My people are warriors born, we are trained from birth in battle and hardened as such, we have hunted numerous creatures for both food and sport, did you think I wouldn't notice that we had killed those invaders by melting them with the sun, not something one usually survives."

The two who had the biggest problem with Hiei at the moment looked stunned that she knew and didn't say anything, and even more stunned that she was fine with taking a life, thankfully Hiei ended their own thoughts for now, "now why were we called over here," the question was valid.

Wonder woman went on to explain why they were at a museum, including the gathering of artifacts that she needed to still do, and the turning of her people to stone, "of course I don't trust this Faust, but what else can I do, you can't help for men are forbidden from setting foot on Themyscira."

"Somebody should've told him that before he went onto the island and turned your sisters and mom to stone," Flash commented to try and lighten the mood, though it didn't have the impact needed, his heart wasn't in it, too shaken up with the fact that he's taken a life before.

"I gave my word that I would find the other relics," Wonder Woman stated while looking down, there was one course of action left for her, in her mind it was the only way to free her mother and sisters from their stone imprisonment, to Hiei he could see many different ways that this could go.

"I'm afraid that leaves us but one course of action," J'onn stated seriously, Flash nodded and Wonder Woman uncrossed her arms, then Superman smiled, as did J'onn, "we'll have to help you," that brought a smile to Wonder Woman's face before she looked to Hiei for his part.

"I'll help, I'll go meet up with Bat and find out what he's learned ahead of time, two minds gathering information is better than only one," Hiei got off of the wall and walked towards Wonder Woman, "I'll also see if I can sense anything off about the artifacts," he stuck his hand out.

She gave him the piece he asked for and let him take it with him, he turned around and in a shimmering blur, he disappeared from the rooftop as Superman asked Wonder Woman, "how long were you going to wait and tell us that we had killed those invaders, we could have contained them."

"Because that was a war, you may not like it Superman, but in most wars, you kill or be killed, they would have done that and much worse had we pulled our punches, and I honestly thought you knew, no one can survive a melting Superman," Wonder Woman said before she took out a gem. "This gem should lead you to a location J'onn, you take Flash and be careful, I had to fight a guardian to the piece I found, it stands to reason that you two would have to do the same," J'onn took the offered gem, afterwards she took off in flight headed for the piece that she would collect. Superman remained standing for a moment longer before he also took off, which left just Flash and J'onn to remain on the roof before they also made their way to the jet so that they could go to their destination, this was shaping up to be an interesting mission, though a heartbreaking one.

* * *

With Hiei

Hiei traveled farther still until he got to a city in the middle of a large downpour, tracking the dark knight with ease until he found him on a rooftop looking over a university, the demon walked up behind the man silently before stopping just beside of the man, "what are you waiting on?"

Batman wasn't surprised to hear his voice, he heard him coming up behind him a while ago and didn't bother to let him know that he knew, yet the demon still knew that he knew he was there, "a professor to this college that should know about this Felix Faust," Batman stated without looking.

"Wouldn't a computer be able to tell you exactly what he'll be able to tell you," Hiei questioned the crouching man, "though if you're going for the personal motivations that wouldn't be made public on the internet then a colleague of his would be the best bet," he answered his own question.

"Former colleague, Felix Faust was kicked out of this college do to some of his theories and since then his former employers have gone missing one after the other, Diana said this guy was a sorcerer of some kind, so I'm assuming that he had a hand in that," the dark knight stated. He also noticed that his target was coming to the university as predicted as well, "you can either join me or stay here, but I prefer to work alone," he informed the demon who didn't move from his spot as Batman took out his grapnel gun to glide and appear behind the old man, "Professor Erlich?"

The man began to take out his keys as he automatically replied, "uh, no conferences without an appointment," he was about to stick the key into the key hole, "uh, see my secretary if," lightning suddenly struck and flashed Batman's silhouette in front of the man, "AAHH," he was clearly startled.

Batman towered over the old man as he turned and saw the dark figure before him, clearly he wanted to be anywhere but where he was, but the signature 'bat-glare' kept him in place, "tell me about Faust," and so the old man spilled everything he knew, and even things that he suspected.

Now Hiei was with Batman as they were in the former office of this Faust as Batman called in the others, "Diana, I've dug up something on your friend, Faust, and I think you better see it for yourself," and she would want to, some of the things in this room practically screamed need to know.

Luckily she and everyone else had already received their pieces of the key and headed their way as quickly as they could, when they got there, J'onn commented, "fascinating, Faust clearly has a great passion for learning," learning and obtaining powerful artifacts as well, given the amount.

Flash was of course the one that would stumble upon something and do something stupid, spying a crystal with a closed eye on it before picking it up, "where did he get this stuff, Warlocks-R-Us," he looked through the crystal before putting his ear to it, then the crystal started to form a ball.

That ball of energy was also opening the eye on the top of the scepter, the ball of energy soon flattened into the rest of the crystal, Batman was the first to notice, "don't touch that," Flash turned with the scepter in hand and shot a beam his way that impacted the wall and left it scorched. It was only thanks to the dark knight's reflexes that he ducked down to avoid the blast, then the infamous 'bat-glare' was on as he marched up to Flash, "don't touch anything, we don't know what kind of powers we're dealing with," Hiei didn't miss everyone else put something back as well.

Superman then examined the large dent in the wall that was still smoking from the beam that Flash hit it with before turning to Batman, "so who is this Faust," the others gathered to a table in the center of the room where Batman began to pull out a photograph from within his belt.

"Felix Faust was once a respected professor of archaeology, but when he became fascinated with the mystic arts he was kicked out of the university for his heretical ideas, he swore revenge on those who mocked him and several later disappeared under mysterious circumstances," he informed.

Diana saw something out of the corner of her eye and turned to one bookcase that held three faces before walking towards them, "I have a pretty good idea what happened to them," well that solves the disappearances for the time being, now back to the purpose of being here.

"It gets worse, we found his journal," Hiei stated before tossing the journal on the table and it fell open on the page he wanted, "the last entries make reference to a former vacation spot for me, Tartarus," the others looked at him as if he was crazy, especially Diana, "demon, remember?"

That explained it for everyone else, of course he wouldn't have a hard time in the pit of lost souls, it would just be a vacation spot for him, but Superman still felt compelled to question it, "isn't that just a myth," he asked as Diana turned and walked to the shelf again as if lost in memory.

"If only it were, long ago in ancient times, my mother, Hippolyta, fell in love with a god, Lord Hades, when war broke out between the Olympian gods and their ancient foes, the Titans, Hades struck a treasonous bargain with the enemy, he would deliver Mount Olympus into the Titan's hands. In return, he would be given dominion over all humanity, Hades tricked my mother into opening the gates of Olympus to the invading Titans, there was a battle of which the muses still sing, the gods fought back and eventually prevailed, and as punishment for his treachery, he was cast into the pit of Tartarus. There he would rule over the dead for all eternity, and for her unwitting role in Hades' plot, my mother was charged with guarding the gateway to the underworld, to make sure the gate could never be unlocked, it's only key was broken up and scattered across the globe. Mother told me she kept one of the pieces in the temple, as a daily reminder of her eternal shame," Diana told the story beautifully, but it was not the whole story, it was one side of the story that was only told from the gods' side, and it aggravated Hiei to no end that the other side he knew.

"That story is only what your mother knew though," Hiei questioned and all eyes turned towards him, "what if that is only what your mother knew because it was what she was told, if Hades was framed by his brother Zeus who was already paranoid of his brother because he was too happy. If Zeus was wanting to get Hades out of the way so he framed him and appealed to everyone's natural distrust of anyone that had connections with the dark side of things like Hades did, and what if that is why Hades was sent to Tartarus, because Zeus didn't want his brother around."

Diana's eyes widened at what he was implying, "my mother told me that Hades came to her to open the gates himself, it wasn't a trick from Zeus, and where did you get this information, if it's from Hades himself then you can hold your tongue, I wouldn't trust anything that he said."

"No, I was told so from Persephone, and then confirmed it with the other staff of his that serve him in Tartarus, as well as the souls that are not known for lying, he is actually a wise and just ruler for them," Hiei said and Diana widened her eyes again, for Persephone to say that as well. "Though you are right that Hades did go to your mother and ask her to open the gates, but not for the Titans, he had gotten word that a prisoner that the Titans' had previously held was free and wanted to welcome him back, but that was a trick, it was Zeus giving false information too.

Diana looked hurt, she was always told that Zeus was good and just, that Hades was evil, and yet it was the opposite, Zeus was the deceiver and Hades was the wise and just king, that didn't make sense with her teachings, "then they never told my mother and punished her for loving Hades."

Hiei nodded as J'onn walked forward, "then these relics we've been gathering are parts of the key, and from what Hiei has told us, it seems like he can slip freely between realms such as demon world and Tartarus, meaning that if the gates of Tartarus are opened, then he can return home."

"Where is this gateway to the underworld," Superman asked, he didn't like Hiei and if this would send him home, then so be it, but it would also give to lost loves a good reason to reconnect and work out their issues, and he may not look it, but he was a sucker for a good romance.

"Beneath Themyscira, though I know I shouldn't give Faust the key, if I don't my mother and sisters will remain petrified forever, and if I do I might get to reunite my mother with her love, but who knows what Faust will use the key for, it might be modified to control Hades," she stated.

"Though we could give him the key to see if it can actually be used to open the gates," Hiei suggested, "spirit world has connections with the other pantheons, one of them is the Greeks, they may have been warned of the threat of that invasion and closed their afterlives like spirit world did."

"There is also no guarantee that if Tartarus is open that the way to demon world is open as well, right," Batman suggested and got a confirming nod in return, "then we have no choice but to go to the island and see if the gates can be opened while stopping Faust and returning the Amazons."

* * *

Themyscira

Faust was in the middle of the main temple and waiting for Wonder Woman while talking to the statue of Hippolyta, "I should thank you for raising such a devoted daughter, she was so eager to cooperate," soon Diana came in through the doors to the temple, "back already, and with hours to spare."

"You sound so impressed," Diana told him dryly while glancing to her still stone mother, "but I have the relics, and already assembled into the key," she pulled the cloth from over the key to show him her words are true, "but first free my mother and then you shall have your prize."

"Oh yes, yes of course," he brought his hand up and a purple ball formed before appearing the symbol of Medusa on a stone coin as big as his palm, he looked at it before pointing behind him and towards Hippolyta, "raedis vitae," the spell worked and the queen was free from her bonds. Diana walked calmly and handed Faust the key while walking past him and kneeled by her mother to check and see if she was alright while Faust held the key in triumph, "after 3,000 years, the key is finally complete," the queen looked on in horror at what her daughter had done for her. The sorcerer shifted his gaze to them, "thank you for the assistance, but now that your usefulness is over," he conjured the coin again began the spell to turn the two to stone, "petro fatis," he said but lost focus on his magic as a red blur zipped past him while grabbing the coin.

Flash was standing there flipping the coin-like object like a coin, "you're not the only one with an ace up your sleeve, pal," soon others came out of the shadows, first Batman, who used a line to jump down from a statue and land safely in front of Faust before knocking him over quickly.

Batman stood over the sorcerer as he scrambled back, "did you really think she'd trust a scum like you," he questioned as J'onn and Superman flew down to either side of him, "it's over Faust, come along quietly," Hiei was the last to appear, he stood behind the sorcerer to block his path.

"Or you can come kicking and screaming, but considering that you invaded Amazonian territory, we might just leave you for them to judge," Hiei stated as he rushed and put a gag over Faust's mouth and grabbed his hands and held him down, "though you should feel lucky that we won't."

With the threat quickly subdued, albeit temporarily, Diana threw her lasso to Hiei for him to tie up the man and make it a much more prolonged binding, "I suggest you yield Faust, that lasso is unbreakable, you will never break free of it," and yet the sorcerer continued to kick about and try.

Hiei sighed at the man's vein attempt to break free and crouched down and slammed the back of the sorcerer's head into the ground , it wasn't enough force to kill him, just enough to knock the man out, he slowly stood as he grabbed the key, "it's time for me to go home now," he stated.

Diana looked down at the key and then back over her shoulder at her mother, with a sigh she picked up the key before walking towards the entrance of the cavern to the underworld when her mother called out, "what do you think you're doing Diana," she asked as calmly as she could.

Diana looked at her mother with some sadness and a bit of pity, "I hope I'm right mother, in fact I know I am, but I believe that Hades was framed and as such is wrongfully imprisoned in Tartarus, we of the Justice League cannot let that injustice stand, we must free him at once."

Her mother looked shocked before her face morphed into one of anger, "Diana you know what he did in order to be sent to Tartarus, how he betrayed the gods and me, I've told you the story of him many times, he was not framed, I know this because I was there, who told you otherwise?"

Diana looked to Hiei for him to explain instead of herself, he sighed before looking to the queen with serious eyes, "his wife Persephone told me this, as well as various souls in the pit, all saying that he is a wise and just ruler, all of his court think this as well, I asked them not himself. Before you begin to also say that they were playing me for a fool or I'm playing your daughter for a fool, I spied on everyone in secret, and believe me, when I hide, none can find me, as to the other issue, you don't know me or what I believe or think so you have very little say in who I am and my goals."

Hippolyta could only look at the demon in shock at knowing her argument before she could state it, but she was not deterred, "regardless, as queen I forbid this action from being carried out, the world cannot afford the chance that you are wrong, the key will be destroyed, this time for good."

"Mother, you can't," Diana exclaimed in protest before her mother narrowed her eyes at her daughter, "Hiei has stated there is a portal to his home in Tartarus, and he wishes to go home, will you simply deny his request to go home because you are scared of facing Hades."

The defiance was unexpected by Hippolyta, but she quickly recomposed herself, "you think it is out of fear of Hades that I do not open that door," she asked and only silence was there to confirm her question, "I am not scared of Hades, I'm scared of what he will do, what he will take." Diana didn't know how to react, what could her mother mean by that, she got her answer after her mother sighed, "I didn't sculpt you alone Diana, Hades helped me, we sculpted you together, and should he find out who you are, I am afraid of what he will do, he might take you away from me."

She bowed her head at her mother's confession, a single tear forming in her eye, "we both know that after we are finished here, you will have to banish me mother," Flash and Superman gasped at the information, they were never told, "I broke the laws of my home, this is the price."

Batman didn't outwardly react, neither did J'onn, Hiei turned away from the scene with the key still in hand and crept away slowly, at the rate this was going they'd never agree to anything and he'd never go home, so he decided to sneak off and find what he was searching for on his own. He almost made it on his own before he was caught by Batman's eyes, he didn't say anything but followed none the less, the others noticed it and knew where they were going, Superman and Diana agreed to distract Hippolyta silently while J'onn and Flash said they will go back to the ship. They didn't really go back to the ship, J'onn phased through the floor while Flash rounded back and came in through a hole in the wall to meet up with Hiei and Batman, the four descended together down into the depths of the pathway until they came upon a large cavern that held the gate.

They approached said gate and Hiei placed it into the keyhole, and turned it, the rumbling started and he was sure that the queen was alerted to his presence down here now, but it was too late as the gates were now about to open, just as Hippolyta and Diana were racing down with Superman. Two large stone blocks were being maneuvered, the left one going up and the right one going down, gears with cobwebs on them started to turn and large wooden blanks slid to the side, the bottom one going to the left, and the top one going to the right, the queen was too late. The large metal doors started to open, she expected to see the golden glow of the gateway, but instead it opened to reveal nothing, behind the gateway there was only solid rock and stone, it was as if there was never a gateway to Tartarus there, and then she realized what this means.

"The gods have truly been sealed away from us," Hippolyta observed in shock as she went to inspect the stone, she bowed her head against the stone and then turned back to then face the Justice League, she didn't even acknowledge the demon that had on a stone face at this. "Diana of Themyscira, you have brought men to this island that is to be kept hidden from all, and though I think I must follow the law, the only force protecting this place now that the gods have left us would be nothing without you," she began walking forward, "as such you will do such. You are to protect us from man's world should they ever find out about our existence, and when they do, you will be our ambassador, either that or you are exiled from your home, what do you choose," the offer was the best she could do, and the only option she had left at this point.

"I agree to your terms mother, I will be the ambassador to our home, should the need ever arise," Diana didn't even bow, this time she ran up and hugged her mother, not caring about proper decorum, she pulled back now that she though of something else though, "our amazon sisters."

Back on the surface everyone was gathered together as they walked out of the temple to the open air, seeing all the amazons turned to stone still, and Faust still lying unconscious, Hiei roughly grabbed him and read his mind for the information he needed before tossing him aside. He quickly snatched the pendant from Flash and held it up towards all of them, "raedis vitae," all the girls were then quickly unpetrified and looked around confused before the pendant was tossed to the queen who caught it quickly, Diana ran up and hugged all the sisters who seemed shocked.

Later they were gathered on a beach and standing in a lineup before the amazon queen, "and for your brave assistance against the sorcerer, Faust, you have earned our eternal gratitude, before you leave, please accept these royal offerings," each hero got a golden wreath as an honor.

Diana was the one to hand Hiei his, who only took it with one hand and a blank look, she sighed at him, "I am sorry that we did not find your way home, but please do not lose hope," she grabbed his shoulder in what she thought was reassurance, "you will find a way home soon."

"Hn," he shrugged her hand off his shoulder before turning and walking back to the jet, he didn't have hope in anything, he had a plan and power, that was all he had to work with, but he needed knowledge as well, and he didn't have the knowledge required yet, so he must work on that now.

He waited in a seat on the jet for a few minutes before the others came onboard, all looking at him with what he couldn't stand, pity, and it was in that pity that Superman spoke up, "look, you have great potential to be a hero, and heroes don't kill, even if you don't see yourself as a hero." The demon was about to interject before the man continued, "but I perhaps approached you wrong and how you go about things, from now on you're going to receive the same missions as the rest of us, same training in the same equipment, and from now on be an actual teammate."

"He's right, we were a little harsh on you and left you alone because we didn't want to be around a killer," J'onn elbowed Flash in the ribs for the remark, "but doing that isn't the right thing to do, so instead, how about we keep an eye on you now, that way you also won't be alone all the time."

Hiei sat there quietly staring off past them and out into the horizon as the jet began to leave thanks to Diana, he looked back to Batman to get his reaction and it was only a firm nod to him, so with a sigh Hiei said the only thing that he could given the situation at hand, it was a, "Hn."


End file.
